As part of our "Jeff'll Do It" series, Candy Cottage owner Alice DuBois invited me to come in and make candy. Since I had no idea how to make candy, I figured this would be a fun thing to do.

And it was. Especially since I actually did quite well and DuBois was going to sell some of the pieces I made. "Jeff'll Do It" is usually funnier when I mess something up or have a hard time doing a particular task. It was nice to actually succeed at something for once.

Monday is normally the day DuBois and her staff makes candy, so they were waiting for me when I arrived with Eagle-Gazette photographer Matt Berry.

My first job was to take a gob of peanut butter batter and roll it into the shape of an egg. I made eggs of various sizes, from small to a large 1-pound egg. DuBois said she makes about 3,000 eggs in the month preceding Easter.

Surprisingly enough, my first attempt at turning the batter into something that resembled an egg worked. It actually looked like an egg. The same thing happened with each egg I rolled, on up to the large one.

The next step was to dip the bottom of each egg into a bowl of melted chocolate. I thought was I'd mess this step up for sure. But I didn't crush the eggs and they all had a chocolate base.

After they received the chocolate base, the eggs went into the refrigerator for a short cooling period. Once they came out, I dunked them completely into the bowl of chocolate, then pulled them out with a spatula. This was the hardest part, and I had trouble grabbing a couple of the eggs and putting them on a tray.

The eggs received two dunks into the chocolate, with the second and final dunk being the most important. That's because if I had put a dent or other imperfection into an egg with the first dunk, I could have corrected with the second dunk. But there was no such safety net after the second dunk.

But much to my surprise, I didn't damage the eggs. My eggs looked like the ones you see on the shelf.

All that was left was to put a candy flower on top of the big ones, write my name on one and put into the box. Writing my name with candy icing wasn't easy, and I didn't do that great. But with practice, I improved.

Once finished, DuBois said I could come by her store at 2271 W. Fair Ave. anytime I wanted to help out. It felt good to succeed at something I've never tried before and also learn about a business I knew nothing about before.